Storytelling and Cultural Identities in Advertising: A Transmedial Perspective

Nowadays, people are overwhelmed by all sorts of advertisements on a daily basis, mainly due to the rapid spread of new technologies and mass media, and this may certainly have some impact on our lives and habits, even if we do not always have evidence of it. On the other hand, we, as consumers, are the first to influence the nature of advertising since it, in order to convey a relevant and persuasive message to us, must be designed with consideration of who we are and what we believe in, i.e., our cultural identity. The purpose of this study is to analyse advertising from a sociocultural perspective, that is, to observe how and in what respects it is adapted to the different cultures or subcultures of the consumers to whom it is targeted. In this dissertation paper, several issues that distinguish the culture of different countries, such as gender, ethics or religion, will be discussed and examined according to how relevant these are in advertising as well. This will be investigated through examples of advertising campaigns that have been more or less successful precisely because of their greater or lesser attention to the cultural dimension.